Blue White Illustrated

2 0 1 7 K I C K O F F S P E C I A L SECOND WIND The Nittany Lions were struggling against Pitt until a savvy coaching decision turned the game around and propelled them into a matchup with Georgia for the national title Penn State's victory over archrival Pitt in the last regular-season game of the 1982 season set up the Sugar Bowl as a national championship showdown be- tween the Nittany Lions and Georgia. The '82 Pitt game has been almost forgotten after Penn State's historic 48-14 come- back win over the Panthers at Pitt Sta- dium the previous year, but it's a key chapter in one of the great backyard rival- ries in college football history. Bill Contz recounts that game here as one of the final steps in Penn State's march to the national championship – a march that he traces back to the final three games of the '81 season. ix days prior to the Pitt game, we received invitations from several major bowl games, including the Sugar Bowl. Joe Paterno held a team meeting before practice, allowing us to choose where we wanted to spend New Year's Day. Since we always voted to play the highest-ranked team possible, the decision was easy. We wanted a shot at the title and unanimously agreed to play Georgia and Herschel Walker, the Bull- dogs' talented junior tailback. Walker would become the fourth Heisman Tro- phy winner (Marcus Allen, Mike Rozier, and Doug Flutie being the others) our de- fense would face during this 15-game odyssey. I am not sure how the schedulers pulled this off, but we hosted Pitt at Beaver Sta- dium for the third time in four years. That's pretty rare for an in-state rivalry. Pitt brought its 9–1 record to Happy Val- ley fully intent on spoiling our champi- onship hopes and returning the very same favor that resulted from the previous year's 48–14 debacle. Doing so would give them their own shot at winning the title since they had committed to playing SMU in the Cotton Bowl. They would need to beat us, hope Georgia lost in the Sugar Bowl, and hope that Nebraska fell to LSU in the Orange Bowl. Some things had changed since our previous meeting. Shortly after Pitt beat Georgia in the 1982 Sugar Bowl, Jackie Sherrill accepted a lucrative offer from Texas A&M. Pitt promoted longtime de- fensive coordinator Foge Fazio to head coach. Fazio had recruited western Pennsylvania for years, so those of us who grew up in that area were well-ac- quainted with his competitive drive and extensive football knowledge. We were all keenly aware that he coached a tal- ented and motivated team. If we were to get our chance to play for the national title in New Orleans, we sure had one hell of an opponent to go through to get there. Pitt teams in the late '70s and early '80s were tough, hard-nosed bad boys and won a fair number of games on sheer intimidation. The stakes for this contest were once again incredibly high and carried the obvious national impli- cations. A lot of players on both sidelines knew each other well by virtue of being high school teammates. Our nose tackle, Greg Gattuso, would line up directly across from his former Seton LaSalle Catholic High School teammate and Pitt center Jim Sweeney. Kenny Jackson would run pass routes against Pitt cornerback Troy Hill. (They both attended South River High School in New Jersey.) Dan Biondi and Joel Coles would be playing their final home games at Beaver Stadium against Pitt All-American candidates Tom Flynn and Bill Fralic. All four players hailed from Penn Hills High School. Penn S This excerpt from "When the Lions Roared: Joe Paterno and One of College Football's Greatest Teams" by former Penn State offensive lineman Bill Contz is printed with the permission of Triumph Books. For more information and to order a copy, please visit www.triumphbooks.com. B O O K E X C E R P T

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